(Marina del Rey, CA)- In one of the first sanctioned races in Santa Monica Bay in a long time, on June 13th the Pacific Singlehanded Sailing Association (PSSA) held its regularly scheduled single/ doublehanded “inverted start” from Marina Del Rey to Redondo Beach and back.
The 16.0nm course attracted what must be a recent record of thirty-two entries. The fleet included a pair of J/105s, a pair of J/92s, a J/29 and J/80. The Class 1 Singlehanded class had 12 boats, while the Class 2 Doublehanded class fielded 16 boats.
The fleet was blessed with a somewhat classical SoCal offshore day. Sunny, good breeze, and in the mid-70s F. In consistent wind of 14-16 knots that ranged from a beam reach to close hauled, Dan Murphy and Rob Dekker sailed their J/105 CUCHULAINN to the top of the leaderboard, more than two minutes ahead of their nearest competitor, the J/29 ZULU sailed by owner Caesar Berger and Ronald Augustsson. Just off the pace was the famous J/80 AVET, the duo of Curt Johnson and Paul Burnett took fourth place. Notably, working out their early season kinks to take an 8th place was Brian Kerr and Edwina Gillin's J/92 DOUBLE DOWN.
Charles Spear in his J/105 TWELVE BAR BLUES finished second amongst the Class 1 Singlehanded boats.